I used to do regular recaps of my own, but gave it up because a) I didn't have the time and b) it stopped being fun, to coin a phrase. Nowadays, though, there are a grand total of zero decent, enjoyable wrestling columns out there(hope you enjoyed the honeymoon, CRZ :)), so I guess I'm gonna have to fill that void...

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I'll start with NWA-TNA last week. From watching tapes that are provided for me, I've developed a strong appreciation for this organization. With all due respect to WWE, there's a 99% chance that you won't get a major push there if you're not "big". The X Division in NWA-TNA allows smaller-sized wrestlers to show their stuff on a national platform, and for that I salute the company. If I didn't have to regularly work on Wednesdays, I'd order their shows more often.

That being said, a quick memo to the higher-ups at NWA-TNA: You're giving Rowdy Roddy Piper a live microphone. His book, and his recent radio interviews, focused heavily on the death toll in wrestling in recent years. Don't you think there's a SLIGHT chance that Piper might bring up some rather sensitive topics?

I actually find myself in the rare position of somewhat understanding Vince Russo's emotional reaction to Piper's comments. I have no love for Russo's style of booking, but I doubt anyone would appreciate having an accidental death thrown in their face like that. If only Russo would have let it slide in his promo later in the show, I might have actually developed a bit of respect for him. A shame that his bruised ego wouldn't let him do that.

The actual wrestling on the show sounded like it was quite decent, but the material in the Piper and Russo segments hurt the fan reaction big-time. I've become a big fan of the SATs and A.J. Styles through NWA-TNA, and Kid Kash's work in ECW as well as Gateway Championship Wrestling(*thumbs up, cheap pop*) has been impressive. Hope to see more of E.Z. Money in the future and I hope to see if Divine Storm and Trinity are worthy of the hype.

Jeff Jarrett as an Austin-style face? Never thought I'd see the day.

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I don't get UPN in my area, so that means no Smackdown. (With Raw as my only major WWE TV viewing, people WONDER why I'm on edge all the time. ;)) Last Thursday's show had hits and misses to say the least: A fairly lengthy Kidman vs. Chavo match and a great-sounding Four-Way Dance on top. I'd like to think there's a chance that Angle might win the title at Armageddon(thus kick-starting the Angle vs. Lesnar feud since Angle never beat Lesnar for the belt), but if Angle is taking time off because of knee issues, it's more likely that Lesnar busts up the match(so that he and he alone can relieve Show of the title) and thus pisses off Angle THAT way.

Albert's not THAT bad for a guy his size, and he's a half-way decent talker. The guy is in severe need of some kind of gimmick overhaul and name change, though.

Torrie and Dawn...sure, this is great for the single guys out there to fantastize over(myself, single but kinda-sorta spoken for), but what exactly is this going to lead to? They already fought on PPV a couple of months ago, so what else is there for them to do?

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Gateway Championship Wrestling's half-hour televised offering on local-access TV here in the St. Louis area is usually fun. Lately, though, they haven't had any TV-exclusive stuff and have been airing house show matches with overdubbed commentary by The Grand Poobah(face) and Tommy Jeans(heel). And they've been bridging the gaps between matches with year-and-a-half-old RVD-and-Nova-in-GCW-T-shirt vignettes. Yup, they're still milking that RVD vs. Nova match from the first anniversary show.

The first match on the show was a four-corner match for the GCW Light Heavyweight Title between OuTtKaSt(champion, heel, member of the Ministry Of Hate), "The Irish Luchador" Billy McNeil(face and former champion), Matt(McNeil's partner in Operation Shamrock), and Mike Sharona(heel, likes to refer to himself as the "Whole F'n Indy Show" and patterns his style after RVD's) from Overland, Missouri. Fun matchup, as most of these light heavyweight contests are. Hot finish as everyone hits their own plancha variations, then KaSt gets flattened by split-legged moonsaults from all three challengers. Matt tries to finish KaSt with his killer shooting star press, but McNeil breaks up the pin with a springboard legdrop to the back of the head from the other side of the ring! Sharona hits his version of the five-star frog splash on McNeil, but comes up favoring the ribs(an old injury from a few years ago), allowing Kast to hit a last-ditch Lost Cause(fireman's carry spun into a spinebuster) for the pin and the title retention.

From there we magically jump to the Vetta Sports Club in St. Peters for Nikki Strychnine(heel, leader of the Ministry) vs. Diamond Back Dingo(Benoit-style hard-hitting face). This was part of a tournament to crown a new GCW Champion after a controversial finish to a match during the summer left the title vacant. Due to time constraints(there were twelve matches on that show), this doesn't get as much time as I would have liked to see, as a Strychnine cheapshot sets up the Lethal Injection(enzuigiri with the opponent seated on the top rope) to advance to the next round.

Match #3 of the show is Steve Sharp(aligned with brother "Pretty Boy" Kevin Sharp) vs. Chaz Wesson(w/ Coach Chuck Farley & Killer Keith Smith, comprising the "Old School Warriors). Both are technically heels, but Sharp dominates and is basically face by default. A cameo appearance by Ron Powers(also in the tournament) distracts Sharp briefly allowing Wesson to hit a couple of killer dropkicks. Chaz tries to bring in the sledgehammer(he borrows from HHH, including the Pedigree as his finish), but Keith stops him from using it, allowing Sharp to sneak in and get the rollup pin to advance.

Finally on the show, we get a rivalry from the South Broadway promotion as Ron Powers takes on "Gorgeous" Gary Jackson. Jackson goes on the attack from the get-go but Powers stops that with a chair to the head outside the ring. Good contest ending with Jackson hitting a bridging belly-to-back suplex...but both men's shoulders are down and Powers gets an arm up before the three to win. Jackson protests after the match, vowing to pursue whoever comes out of the tournament with the title...

GCW's on vacation from house shows for a while, but they make their Cape Girardeau debut in late January with a show topped by Kid Kash vs. Delirious(nutso masked heel in the Ministry Of Hate). I work Saturdays so I won't make it to that show, but I saw their first GCW match(back in November) on GCW Home Video and it was awesome. Twelve minutes of great action ending with Kash hitting a sick Moneymaker to get the duke. I'm sure the sequel will be no different.

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For those of you who skimmed over the indy wrestling stuff, you can come back now.

I don't get NWA-TNA XPlosion, unfortunately, but this weekend's show apparently featured a Kid Kash squash and somebody named Jason Cross beating Jimmy Rave with a shooting star...legdrop?!? Yikes.

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Velocity. I take it Crash watches a LOT of NWA-TNA, as he's stolen not only the Styles Clash, but Alan Funk/Bruce's tilt-a-whirl faceplant thingie(which he used to beat Shannon Moore here).

I don't know about John Cena's gimmick, it's amusing if nothing else...but the guy seriously needs a better finisher than that glorified belly-to-back suplex he's been using.

Cool Matt Hardy vs. Chuck Palumbo matchup to top off the show. Chuck has potential, but since the ditching of the "gay" angle and Billy Gunn's injury, he's been on the road to nowhere with no gimmick to speak of.

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Heat. Justin Credible went from ECW Champion to this? A shame Syxx-Pac left NWA-TNA, he coulda jumped there and reformed the X-Factor tag team, that was about the only sucess he had in WWE. (I'm the ONLY one who liked them as a team, I think.)

Let's see, Test...corny gimmick...get to cozy up to Stacy Keibler...corny gimmick...get to cozy up to Stacy Keibler...hmm...

Hey, this is almost a push for Stevie. Cool. Stamboli's got potential, but it doesn't bode well that Test sold Credible's arm attack in the opener better than Stamboli sold Stevie's similar arm attack.

Nice that Raven's got something to do, anyways...

D-Lo's a heel again. This guy is over, face or heel, and has a ton of talent to boot...

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Finally Raw, everyone's least favorite show~!

They need to let Storm and Regal do promos or SOMETHING to get a fan reaction. Wrestling alone doesn't get you over as much as some might believe, sorry to say. I like Storm using the Sharpshooter, nice nod to the Harts there(long-time fan of both Bret and Owen here).

What universe is this where Stevie and D-Lo both win on Raw? Jacquelyn's more talented than most people give her credit for, by the way. D-Lo and Nowinski have wrestled all of two matches together and they look like they've been teaming for years. Victoria's Widow's Peak finisher is cool, mostly because I first saw Billy McNeil use that move about a year and a half ago in GCW(he calls it the "Trigger Effect"). Then Ace Steele used it in NWA-TNA and called it the Twist Of Cain...wow, these moves get around.

I haven't seen nearly enough of Bautista to make a judgement yet...he has a killer sitout powerbomb(and amazing strength to have been able to throw around the Smackdown-side heavyweights like Mizark Henry), but I'm gonna wait for him to wrestle a longer match to truly judge him.

After the emotional buildup they gave Booker T and Goldust, I'm rooting for them to win the tag belts on Sunday. (Please?)

Jeff Hardy is in severe need of some time off, or rehab, or SOMETHING. What the heck happened to this guy?

Three-Minute Warning's push is weird, they build them up as monsters, but they lose handicap matches and other contests where you'd think they've have an advantage. They show surprising agility for super heavyweights and some good double-team moves, anyway

I remember when Trish's lone purpose in life was to get beat up by Lita in six-man tags with Test and Albert against Lita and the Hardys. Now the women's division is actually really good, go fig. Victoria's been a breakout star over the past few months to say the least. Glad the Dudleys are back together, the singles pushes were going nowhere. Somewhere, though, Ron Simmons is saying "Damn!..."

I measure wrestling matches by the emotional reaction they get out of me, and only a handful of matches this year have caused that:

-Rock vs. Hogan at WrestleMania.-Dingo vs. Ryan Ash in GCW in June(Ash's last GCW match as he's taking time off to rehab a back injury...Ash is a friend of mine and he went out in a blaze of glory in this best-of-three-falls contest. Dingo won in overtime after the time limit expired, and Ash was a bloody mess at the end of it).-Shawn vs. HHH at SummerSlam.

I don't know if I'm getting Armageddon(it kinda depends on how the rest of the card shapes up, as well as how much money I'm gonna need for bills, X-Mas presents, and other stuff), but Shawn's back has held up well enough that I'm optimistic about this contest.

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I hope the two or three people who read this enjoyed my somewhat more laid-back approach to wrestling commentary...if so, I'll do it again in the future...

Thanks for getting my hopes up, when I saw Dingo, I thought Dingbat Warrior had returned with a match of the year candidate.I still don't think that it was a shoot involving Piper and Russo. Russo is slime and would have no problem trying to make money off of Owen's death. Funny thing is storyline wise Piper was the one who had Flair committed. Gee Roddy, maybe they should turn that into a shoot for you.Have said it once will say it again: Sting was using the Scorpion Deathlock on Flair while Bret was still teaming with Neidhart. Its not a sharpshooter, its a scorpion deathlock. Weird heel tag team in Storm/Regal, as they win all their matches cleanly. Nice to see that no continuity of the break-up of the Anti-Americans was brought up building to Regal/Storm/Christian being in the same ring at the PPV.

Originally posted by redsoxnationThanks for getting my hopes up, when I saw Dingo, I thought Dingbat Warrior had returned with a match of the year candidate.I still don't think that it was a shoot involving Piper and Russo. Russo is slime and would have no problem trying to make money off of Owen's death. Funny thing is storyline wise Piper was the one who had Flair committed. Gee Roddy, maybe they should turn that into a shoot for you.Have said it once will say it again: Sting was using the Scorpion Deathlock on Flair while Bret was still teaming with Neidhart. Its not a sharpshooter, its a scorpion deathlock. Weird heel tag team in Storm/Regal, as they win all their matches cleanly. Nice to see that no continuity of the break-up of the Anti-Americans was brought up building to Regal/Storm/Christian being in the same ring at the PPV.

Naw, Diamond Back Dingo = formerly-evil Australian who drops people on their heads with killer suplexes. Finishers: Dingo Driver(high-cradle sort of fisherman buster) and Egobuster(powerbomb-powerbomb-DVD chain). Recently upset Balls Mahoney at a GCW show in November, killer matchup that went twenty minutes-plus. (Yes, I'm a GCW shill, why do you ask? ;))

I don't have much respect for either Piper or Russo for dragging Owen's name into their own personal issue with each other. As a long-time Owen fan and someone who was in attendance at the post-Over The Edge Raw, I have a real problem with Owen being brought up in that context.

I think the dynamic is either a) scorpion deathlock used by a Canadian = Sharpshooter or b) scorpion deathlock used in WWE = Sharpshooter(since Bret was the first to use the hold regularly in the WWF, so when anyone from Owen to Rock to Storm used it after that, it was the Sharpshooter).

Unfortunately, angles change so quickly nowadays that the Unamericans are practically forgotten already. So it doesn't surprise me THAT much that the previous alliance slipped the minds of Ross and Lawler.

I used to do a newsletter/dirtsheet on a regular basis, as I said, but I gave it up...this was kind of a test run, I didn't know if I was gonna something like this regularly or not. If Guru Zim thinks it'd be a good idea, then I think I could give this a shot.

When you do a recap or wrestling commentary long enough, you start to overanaylze stuff instead of just sitting back and enjoying the show. I prefer the "stream of consciousness" type of thing that I just did over a blow-by-blow recap like CRZ, but that's my preference. When you start getting the mindset that you do the commentary because you HAVE to, rather than because you WANT to, it has a negative influence on your writing. That's why I don't know if I'd want to do this on a regular basis.